President Fires Press Spokesman

South Korean President Park Geun-hye fired her press spokesman for an unspecified “unsavory incident” while in the U.S., overshadowing an otherwise well-received summit trip in which she and U.S. President Barack Obama presented a united front against North Korea.

Reuters

Yoon Chang-jung.

The move was announced on Thursday during a short news briefing in Los Angeles, the final stop on Ms. Park’s first visit to the U.S. as president.

Yoon Chang-jung was sacked because “he was involved in an unsavory incident during President Park’s state visit to the U.S. and displayed inappropriate behavior for a high-level official that was believed to hurt national dignity,” said presidential press secretary Lee Nam-ki.

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The presidential Blue House didn’t specify the nature of the incident, or where or when it took place. On Friday morning, the presidential house said there was no further update on the case. Mr. Yoon couldn’t be reached for comment.

An official at the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington confirmed reports that a complaint had been filed against Mr. Yoon.

“We are investigating the report of a misdemeanor sexual abuse. We cannot comment further, at this time,” said Gwendolyn Crump, director of the Office of Communications at the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, in an email response to the Journal.

The case deals another blow to the president after she suffered a series of failures in gaining parliamentary approval for some of her choices for top government positions after taking office in February.

Mr. Yoon, a long-time journalist, was among the controversial choices. The main opposition Democratic United Party objected to his nomination because of the content of opinion articles he wrote before he worked for the president.

Ms. Park will return to Seoul this afternoon after wrapping up her six-day state visit to the U.S. During her time in Washington, Ms. Park appeared to confirm close coordination with Mr. Obama in tackling North Korea’s provocations and gave a warmly received speech to Congress that stressed the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

North Korea gave a predictably caustic review of the visit on Friday. A dispatch from its state media arm said Ms. Park had made a “despicable sycophantic trip to please her master [and] confirm the master-servant relations.”